Building a new studio (12 sqm)

Hello everyone! Until now me and my friend has been making music in my "home studio". I've dedicated a room in my apartment for it since a couple of years now. However it's time to move this out of my apartment and in to the new place me and my friend found. Finally my neighbors and my girlfriend will find peace and quiet during the days. ;) So... me and my friend finally got ourselves this place to build our new studio and it's more or less just gonna be a control room cause we can't fit anything else. On the other hand we don't need to fit anything else since we're making electronic music. I've got some building experience since I built my home studio with the help of you guys! (viewtopic.php?t=13996) I've got most of it planned out but I felt that I should ask you guys just to be safe that it will end up as good as possible. And as I stated in that thread - I won't have that much trouble getting the materials and getting it built since I've got some friends and family in that business. However - our budget is limited. We're aiming on between €500-€1000. Now to the new room and some description of it. This room is about 12 square meters big/small. We've got the side walls on 3.56 meters and the front, back wall on 3.42 meters and a ceiling height of 2.72 meters. On the back wall we've got the door, it's pretty much centered on that wall. On the right side of the door (looking out from the room), we have a air intake for fresh air and on the left side of the door (again looking out from the room), we have a air outtake. So we're fortunate to have good airconditioning in the room, but we do think that it sounds too much so we need to fix that. We've got the air out-pipe going inside our room from the back wall along the right side wall and on the front wall. This pipe is going out 28cm from the walls. The material of all walls, floors and ceiling is concrete and the door is a massive steel door. That's the room. Now to the new neighbors and how loud we are. The neighbors above us is some office spaces that has working hours from 8am to 4pm and in the same corridor we've got some other studios. I would say that we're not that loud, well not always. We can play up to maybe 90db at a short period of time but we most often is playing around 75-80db so I don't think that we need to treat the room to make it more quiet for the neighbors. I wouldn't do it anyways cause I feel that there's no room to do it. The only thing is that we want to silent the air condition in and out so the music doesn't play that loud out in the corridor. My plans. How I've laid it out in my head is that the side walls will have angled slot resonator walls (is there a specific angel it should be at?). The back wall will have bass traps in the corners starting from the door (I'm thinking of hanging absorbers, yes or no? And should I hang these guys behind the side walls too and even in the front corners?). And the front wall will be heavily treated, maybe 20-25cm, 10cm air between concrete wall and then 10-15cm insulation and then cover it up with cloth. Should I do it in another way? For the ceiling I'm thinking of making John's Cloud Panel out of cloth and for the floor just some kind of rug. A big question: Should I flush mount the speakers? I'm thinking no just because I think it looks ridiculous flush mounting a pair of Genelec 8040A's :P And finally I'm thinking that we should put up some kind of heavy cloth over the door that you just can pull to the side when entering/exiting the studio. I think I've got it all down now and with that said: Here's some pictures of the room as it is right now and 2 "blueprints" of my thoughts so far! I hope you guys have enough info, if not just let me know and I will try to give you the info! :) Thanks in advance guys!

Did I forget anything? :?

Welcome back! :)

This room is about 12 square meters big/small. We've got the side walls on 3.56 meters and the front, back wall on 3.42 meters and a ceiling height of 2.72 meters. On the back wall we've got the door, it's pretty much centered on that wall.

That's a decent size for a control room. A bit on the square side, but still usable.

So we're fortunate to have good airconditioning in the room, but we do think that it sounds too much so we need to fix that.

The answer is silencer boxes: one on the inlet, one on the outlet.

That's the room. Now to the new neighbors and how loud we are.

Before we leave the room, you didn't mention the materials! What is each wall/ceiling/floor made of?

How I've laid it out in my head is that ....

You seem to be wasting a lot of space with your angled walls. Generally, even for a full RFZ design, you only need to angle the front part of the wall, maybe 1/3 to 1/2 of the room. The rest can be parallel. Also at the back: those cut-off angles are wasting space where your bass traps need to be.

The back wall will have bass traps in the corners starting from the door (I'm thinking of hanging absorbers, yes or no?

Hangers are good, but you don't seem to have enough space to get many big ones in, so it might be better to just do superchunks. They are also very effective.

And should I hang these guys behind the side walls too and even in the front corners?).

Side walls: no. Front corners? Possibly, but here again it depends on your room design concept and the available space. Superchunks might be good there too, or maybe if you use John's soffit design, then hangers underneath would be good.

And the front wall will be heavily treated, maybe 20-25cm, 10cm air between concrete wall and then 10-15cm insulation and then cover it up with cloth. Should I do it in another way?

Whoooaaa! I think you might be confusing "isolation" and "treatment"! The gap between the outer-leaf (concrete) wall and the inner-leaf (???) is part of your MSM isolation system. The insulation that comes after that, inside the room, is treatment.

A big question: Should I flush mount the speakers? I'm thinking no just because I think it looks ridiculous flush mounting a pair of Genelec 8040A's

Not a problem! :) http://www.genelec.com/learning-center/ ... -mounting/ www.genelec.fi/documents/catalogues/Gen ... ochure.pdf (check out page 12...) https://www.google.cl/search?q=genelec+ ... 13&bih=585 Actually, that's not quite the way I would do it, but it sure can be done! And I would do it in your case, as you have the space, and the benefits are excellent...

And finally I'm thinking that we should put up some kind of heavy cloth over the door that you just can pull to the side when entering/exiting the studio.

Or maybe a very thick panel of absorption mounted on the back of the door... - Stuart -

Thanks a lot! :D Before we leave the room, you didn't mention the materials! What is each wall/ceiling/floor made of? They're made of concrete. Everything is pure concrete except for the door wall which is a brick wall with some sort of cement or something on the inside of the room. And the door is of steel. You seem to be wasting a lot of space with your angled walls. The main reason I angled the walls like that is because of the ventilation pipe on the right side wall. We don't want to see that pipe. How do we work around this? ... so it might be better to just do superchunks. Superchunks it is then! :) Whoooaaa! I think you might be confusing "isolation" and "treatment"! I was referring to what John recommended me to do in my old thread. And I would do it in your case, as you have the space, and the benefits are excellent... We're still debating if this would be best for us. We're thinking of buying new monitors. I think we will skip the flush mounting. At least for now. Or maybe a very thick panel of absorption mounted on the back of the door... Haha sounds like a good idea. Have to check though if I'm allowed to screw anything on the door. Thanks in advance!

Ok, I've done some changes and I think this will, in the end, work out better. I've shortened down the angled side walls to the middle of the room and then it evens out with. Basstraps, superchunks, in the front and back corners. The only thing I need to solve right now is the ceiling. I've figured that I can do som sort of a angled ceiling going from the middle of the room and angling down towards the front wall. That way we can hide the aircon pipe on the front wall. I really don't want to see the air condition pipe on the right wall so how can I build the roof to both hide this and benefit the acoustics? I tried to attach my Sketchup file but I couldn't get it under 4MB.

Hmm... Does the slat walls need to go further in to the room, behind listening position?

Ok, I've done some changes and I think this will, in the end, work out better.

Looks pretty good to me. The only thing I would do different, is to not angle the ceiling down at the back: angle it at the front, for sure, but just keep the back half flat.

I tried to attach my Sketchup file but I couldn't get it under 4MB.

Upload it to a file-sharing service, such as DropBox, then post the link here.

Hmm... Does the slat walls need to go further in to the room, behind listening position?

They seem to be OK. The only way to tell for sure is to "ray-trace", to make sure that no reflections from the speakers get to your head. Only direct sound. - Stuart -